This invention relates generally to sensor systems used in vehicles to facilitate collision avoidance, capture environmental information, customize vehicle functions to the particular user, exchange information with other vehicles and infrastructure sensors, and/or perform other functions. More specifically, the invention relates to vehicle sensor systems that integrate data from multiple sensors, with different sensors focusing on different types of inputs.
People are more mobile than ever before. The number of cars, trucks, buses, recreational vehicles, and sport utility vehicles (collectively “automobiles”) on the road appears to increase with each passing day. Moreover, the ongoing transportation explosion is not limited to automobiles. A wide variety of different vehicles such as automobiles, motorcycles, planes, trains, boats, forklifts, golf carts, mobile industrial and construction equipment, and other transportation devices (collectively “vehicles”) are used to move people and cargo from place to place. While there are many advantages to our increasingly mobile society, there are also costs associated with the explosion in the number and variety of vehicles. Accidents are one example of such a cost. It would be desirable to reduce the number of accidents and/or severity of such accidents through the use of automated systems configured to identify potential hazards so that potential collisions could be avoided or mitigated. However, vehicle sensor systems in the existing art suffer from several material limitations.
Different types of sensors are good at detecting different types of situations. For example, radar is effective at long distances, and is good at detecting speed and range information. However, radar may not be a desirable means for recognizing a small to medium sized obstruction in the lane of an expressway. In contrast, image processing sensors excel in identifying smaller obstructions closer to the vehicle, but are not as successful in obtaining motion data from a longer range. Ultrasonic sensors are highly environmental resistant and inexpensive, but are only effective at extremely short distances. There are numerous other examples of the relative advantages and disadvantages of particular sensor types. Instead of trying to work against the inherent attributes of different sensor types, it would be desirable for a vehicle sensor system to integrate the strengths of various different types in a comprehensive manner. It would also be desirable if a vehicle sensor system were to weigh sensor data based on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the type of sensor. The utility of an integrated multi-sensor system of a vehicle can be greater than the sum of its parts.
The prior art includes additional undesirable limitations. Existing vehicle sensor systems that capture information external to the vehicle (“external sensor data”) tend to ignore important data sources within the vehicle (“internal sensor data”), especially information relating to the driver or user (collectively “user”). However, user-based attributes are important in assessing potential hazards to a vehicle. The diversity of human users presents many difficulties to the one-size-fits-all collision avoidance systems and other prior art systems. Every user of a vehicle is unique in one or more respects. People have different: braking preferences, reaction times, levels of alertness, levels of experience with the particular vehicle, vehicle use histories, risk tolerances, and a litany of other distinguishing attributes (“user-based attributes”). Thus, it would be desirable for a vehicle sensor system to incorporate internal sensors data that includes user-related information and other internal sensor data in assessing external sensor data.
In the same way that prior art sensors within a particular vehicle tend to be isolated from each other, prior art vehicle sensors also fail to share information with other sources in a comprehensive and integrated manner. It would be desirable if vehicle sensor systems were configured to share information with the vehicle sensor systems of other vehicles (“foreign vehicles” and “foreign vehicle sensor systems”). It would also be desirable if vehicle sensor systems were configured to share information with other types of devices external to a vehicle (“external sensor system”) such as infrastructure sensors located along an expressway. For example, highways could be equipped with sensor systems relating to weather, traffic, and other conditions informing vehicles of obstructions while the users of those vehicles have time to take an alternative route.
Traditional vehicle sensors are isolated from each other because vehicles do not customarily include an information technology network to which sensors can be added or removed in a “plug and play” fashion. It would be desirable for vehicles utilizing a multi-sensor system to support all sensors and other devices using a single network architecture or a single interface for various applications. It would be desirable for such a architecture to include an object-oriented interface, so that programmers and developers can develop applications for the object-oriented interface, without cognizance of the underlying network operating system and architecture. It would be desirable for such an interface to be managed by a sensor management object responsible for integrating all sensor data.